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Note straight at the top, these were gifted to me by ERND snacks to write about if I so chose.

First off, I’m not a truffle fan, too creamy. I like my dark chocolate denser than creamy. Thus, my love of Lindt 85% and Montezuma 100% dark chocolates. I combine them, a square of each one on top of the other, delivering my perfect bliss point apparently, 92.5%.

‘That said, these are well done, very satisfying ‘two bites in one’ mini truffles using fine Belgian chocolate. While they say dark chocolate on the bag, I didn’t find them very dark, but then you now know my barometer. Actually upon closer inspection I see they also say on the bag 55% cacao.

But if you like your chocolate creamy and truffley, I can’t see how these won’t satisfy. The husband likes them. My only question is what does ‘ERND’ stand for?

The big news of course is the lead I buried: they’re sugar-free, low carb and low fat. 1 truffle has 6 carbohydrates, 7 grams of fat and 75 calories, and few ingredients which is always good:

Handmade in Utah, the assorted bag I was sent contains 32 in total mint, raspberry, dark and sea salt truffles.

This 16 ounce bag costs $29.50. The company also has 7 ounce bags for $15.50, and additional flavors.

Ah – the company says ERND is pronounced “earned” as in “You’ve earned it!”

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Insulin was discovered by scientist Frederick Banting, along with Charles Best, in Toronto in 1921. So this year diabetes organizations are recognizing and heralding this important milestone, insulin’s 100th birthday.

As a member of the International Diabetes Federation’s Blue Circle Voices (that’s IDF’s people with diabetes group) I am part of their testimonial campaign, specifically answering the question what changes I’ve seen in my 49 years living with type 1 diabetes.

My two minute testimonial below and more stories from around the world and information here

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I was up to my neck in health ailments some months ago, I imagine it’s sort of how I must have felt when I donned this pot on my head. When I could no longer stand my health issues, I wrote about them; what creeps up on you after living with type 1 diabetes for 49 years. Excerpt below:

“We who live with T1D all learn pretty quickly (SHOCKER HERE): It’s not about the shots. It is about the 180 decisions per dayTrusted Source medical journals say we make to manage our blood sugar. It is about how this daily decision-making puts our nervous systems into constant hypervigilance. 

It is about fearing the major complications I was told in my hospital bed at age 18 that would befall me: heart attack, kidney disease, amputation, blindness. Scared silly for weeks afterward, I went to sleep opening and closing my eyes, testing what the world would be like if I could no longer see it. Need I tell you I was an art major?”

Full story published on Healthline today, click here. I think it’s an important contribution to annotating the long-term experience of type 1 diabetes.

My favorite “diabetes bad boys,” Dr.s Steven Edelman and Jeremy Pettus, bring us great information about the current state of meds, devices and strategies to help us avoid those spiky highs and horrendous lows. What I love about these two guys is not only are they funny, but they’re honest: two doctors with type 1 diabetes who share their own slips, mess ups and difficulties. Tune in, take notes and enjoy.

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Last week my 700 square foot city apartment expanded to hold professional video equipment. For two days it become more than our COVID-inspired workspace, gym, movie theatre, restaurant. It became an actual video studio. The photo above is the after-shoot celebration with the husband.

These two black cases arrived from UPS filled to the brim with a camera, tripods, cables, microphone, monitor, laptop, and two ring lights arrived as well in separate boxes. The video was being shot in three locations, the homes of each of us who were in the video, in Boston and Brooklyn.

The video began as an idea for a pop up in a digital anniversary book on insulin. The book is being produced by VPR, the same company through which I participated in the Sanofi-sponsored A1C Champion peer-mentor program for 10 years.

The video will also be shown at the American Diabetes Association’s conference next month, and posted on Sanofi’s website. You may also catch it somewhere else as wider distribution is being discussed among diabetes organizations.

The idea for the video is education and uplift, and the talent was in part chosen because our ages add up to 100, just like the 100th birthday for insulin. Kat and Maddie, who’ve had T1D respectively 12 and 7 years, accompanied me through this video. I leave it to you to guess our ages. 😉

In the video we share our experiences of T1D from our respective ages. In other words, I ask Maddie, today a tween, how it felt hearing she had type 1 diabetes at only six! Kat was curious what advances I’ve seen in diabetes since my diagnosis in 1972, the prehistoric ages. Certainly, those were pre-glucose meter ages; it would take 10 years before I had one.

Pre-shoot: examining the set up. Trust me I did not do the set up, that task was taken on by the “helper” husband. He groaned, but I think it actually appealed to his love of gadgets and photography. Lucky me.

Rolling: and yes, you will only see me from the waist up. When asked about my feelings upon diagnosis, I share what I will never forget: getting T1D at 18 felt like my life was beginning and ending all at the same time. I couldn’t imagine living my whole life with a disease, and taking shots every day.

Of course we all quickly learn that the shots are the least of it. It’s the constant decision-making, the effort to avoid ‘riding the rollercoaster’ and the carrying on through better and worse days. All of which we do.

While Kat and Maddie shared about becoming independent managing their diabetes, I talked about the opposite – learning to become, not dependent, but letting the husband into my diabetes after handling it alone for 30 years. I remember the first time he told me, seeing my CGM blood sugar numbers on his Apple Watch, “You know you’re 63…” “I know,” I said. To which he responded, “Does it bother you that I tell you?” “Not yet,” I said. And we laughed.

That’s a wrap: something Kat, Maddie and I learned was that even though we’re different ages, and have had different experiences, we can still learn from each other. Like the learning that goes on on social media among people with diabetes every day. Not to mention the bonding. It was 22 years after my diagnosis before I met another person with type 1 diabetes. Now I may just have as many friends with diabetes as without.

I will post the video here when it’s available. Meanwhile, I can’t believe how big my apartment is now that it’s only a workspace, gym and restaurant.